Lulu
='Luvenia Luraleia'= "I've a lot to make up for, and a lot of life to live." -Luvenia Luraleia Full Name: Luvenia Luraleia Nickname: Lulu Race: Viera Age: 28 Eyes: Hazel Hair: White Height: 6'0" (not counting ears) Weight: 142 lbs Innate Element: None Preferred Weapon(s): Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, Psionics A Viera who formerly was a member of an elite commando unit belonging to Tal's organization, Luvenia Luraleia, or "Lulu" as she is often known, is a combat veteran who has seen years of combat. Having left most of that behind her, Lulu would be content to live her life out peacefully and without needing to take up arms again. However, she is not that naive. Lulu knows first-hand what is at stake when fights start, and she has not forgotten what she learned as an elite operative - if people she cares about are involved, Lulu will enter the fray in a heartbeat. Whilst she normally works for a hotel run by Queen Brooke Canciaris' cousin, Alexandra St. Croix, she remains on standby in case of an emergency - as part of a special deal with the Mirandian government (which was a condition of her defection), Lulu can be commissioned for specific assignments if her considerable talents are needed. While Lulu had a bit of a rocky start when she came to Miranda, she has since adapted quite well and she has opened up a lot more. Generally fairly tolerant and understanding these days, Lulu understands and accepts cultural differences and as such, is quite good at negotiating. Lulu enjoys meeting new people, and she's well-known for her tendency to actively seek out deserters and escapees from Tal's organization. Viewed as a traitor and a threat by members of Tal's group, she has had to deal with both suspicion from those who would be her allies, and attempts by Tal's group to re-join - and when this failed, to assassinate her. Lulu has not let this deter her: she constantly is on the lookout for members of Tal's group that wish to defect, and is part of a Mirandian Military initiative which attempts to assist defections from militant groups in an attempt to help them integrate themselves and become productive members of society. Whilst Lulu has had only limited success thus far - a dozen or so cases at best - these give her hope, and she actively continues to persue it as a result. In more recent times, she's supplemented these personnel with refugees fleeing Hom courtesy of the Paramisian War - Lulu's work has helped these disaffected men and women find work and a place to stay in an otherwise-hectic time, and at the same time, helped to give Lulu and other former employees of Tal's group a bit of understanding and support that, again, they otherwise would not have. Lulu does have some psychological quirks, in no small part due to a fairly hectic upbringing and self-esteem issues. A lot of this also stems from the loss of her sister, Viala Luraleia, who was also a member of the same commando unit Lulu was part of. Lulu tends to have short-term periods of melancholy when confronted with her own shortcomings. Lulu's previous assignment as a member of Tal's group has afforded her relatively few friends; she found herself mistrusted at first by several, and rather notoriously nearly had it out with Cima Marin, who believed that Lulu was still in league with Tal, despite evidence to the contrary. Lulu's ultimate goal is to help extract as many of her former unit and as many friends as possible that were left behind when she left Tal's forces, though this is a long-term goal and will likely take considerable time to accomplish. In combat situations, Lulu is an incredibly skilled fighter. Trained in the use of sniper rifles, Lulu, being a Viera, is an incredible shot and has razor-sharp focus, and she is thus frequently employed as a sniper. Lulu's training, however, is extensive; in addition to marksmanship, she has considerable training with other weapons (especially shotguns), and supplements these with psionic talent. Lulu possesses very strong psychokinetic abilities, and can use these to incredible effect, both offensively and defensively. She can also use these to gain access to places she otherwise could not, by means of using telekinetic fields to launch herself to high-up locations. All these combine to make dangerous at any range. Lulu's only remaining family that has not completely disowned her, courtesy of her defection, is her cousin, Naisha Grant, although recently, her mother has defected and forgiven her as well. However, she considers her employees both new and old to be family (since most of them do kind of live together and everything). Included in this category are Monique Baharavia, Melia Qwynvire, and others. Notably, a male viera, a male werebear, a male orc, and the new Hom refugees. Since long before arriving in Miranda, she has had a slight crush on Jaimas, which is starting to blossom. ---- 'History' Early Life Lulu was born in Aelondri, a tiny tribal village located in Zalen's Mount Rallastar. Growing up during the Valendian occupation was hellish; the Viera tribes of the region were constantly harassed and abused at the hands of the Valendian military. Frequently she would hear of the labor camps established during the outset of the Ekris War, and the horrors of what the Valendian government had put the Viera through. More than once, Lulu witnessed this first-hand, when one of the people of her village would come back after escaping from one of the camps, often scarred, malnourished, and terrified. As a result, Lulu's home village grew up intensely insular and xenophobic, even by tribal Viera standards. Years down the line, soon after Lulu's 18th birthday, Tal's forces began recruiting from her village. The Viera of Aelondri were a nearly-perfect source of troops; naturally xenophobic and instilled with an intense dislike of humans due to the Valendian Military's use of forced labor, the Viera recruited by Tal from the region quickly became some of the best and most-skilled troops under his command. At the time, Zalen was falling - Jaimas' forces were at work taking the country bit by bit. They made several overtones to a peaceful alliance with Aelondri, but the village steadfastly refused, seeing the new government as no better than the previous. Lulu's involvement with Tal's forces happened almost a year later, when Natural Selection, a human-supremacist militant group attacked Aelondri and razed the village, slaughtering those who lived there and all-but-confirming everything Lulu was ever told about Humans. Lulu - and her sister, Viala - only escaped due to the timely arrival of Tal's forces - Lulu's mother being among them. Most of the village didn't escape; among those who did was Lulu's aunt - Naisha's mother - who fled with her daughter to the newly-formed Raxis. Boot Camp ''' Determined to not allow anything like what she had witnessed to happen to anyone she cared about ever again, Lulu, along with her younger sister, Viala, joined Tal's forces and began her basic training soon after her escape. The training camp itself predominantly was populated by other Viera, which played nicely into the communal nature most Viera tribes have. Lulu learned rudimentary combat skills here, but the most important thing she learned was the basics of how to manifest her psionic abilities, which had awoken courtesy of the recent shock she had undergone. Lulu completed basic training fairly quickly, in no small part due to her instructor, Nelyna Quaris, who Lulu idolized to a degree and somewhat filled the hole left by Lulu's mother, who remained extremely distant following the incident at Aelondri village. Lulu sharpened her beliefs on humanity in these days; the newly-formed Raxian government had been having it out with Tal's forces, playing very nicely into pre-concieved notions she had from the village. Lulu's training continued when she and her sister both left basic and proceeded to a new posting over in the Yarasil Mountains. This camp was considerably larger and was designed to support advanced training that Lulu would make use of in her assignments to come, including firearm and vehicle handling training, in-depth training into her psionic abilities, and familiarization with forces Tal's troops were currently facing. Lulu and Viala's first few missions that weren't training assignments came her way, and Lulu proved both reliable and dependable. Of particular note was Lulu's first meeting with Monique, a Siren who had joined Tal's group under rather similar circumstances to Lulu. The two formed a fast friendship, and wound up frequently assigned together. She also met several of her squad members that would serve with her later on, including Tevi Iselle. Lulu's skill quickly drew attention from the leadership, and Sjathrek was assigned to the post in order to survey the newcomer and monitor her progress. After a surprisingly even-handed meeting between Sjathrek and Lulu later, Lulu was assigned, along with several others from the base, to a new special operations unit that had been formed. '''The Trial Lulu's new assignment was her first dedicated combat role, and she wound up frequently on the front lines, supporting Tal's operations directly. Very frequently, she wound up working alongside her sister, as well as Monique, Qwynvire, Tevi, and Zeare, and she had a phenomenal mission succcess rate. She was not terribly fased by the new role due to her experience, but she was increasingly unnerved by things that occured back at base. Lulu suffered routine sexual harassment from some of the officers on multiple occasions, and though those responsible were harshly disciplined, it left a serious mark on Lulu and was the very start of Lulu beginning to question things. Things began to worsen during a mission to Raxis, where Lulu was assigned to locate a Raxian unit that was well within Tal's territory, and to eliminate it if able. During the assignment, Lulu's transport was shot down. And Lulu's squad encountered a large contingent of Natural Selection troops. They attempted to escape, but were cut down by gunfire from one of Regina's gunships. Shiara, Nelyna's sister and a member of Lulu's unit, didn't make it; Lulu herself was left, freezing and bleeding to death, in the snow. Weakened from shock and blood loss, Lulu was certain she had breathed her last. Verdict That could have been the end of Lulu's story, but thankfully, it was not. Lulu survived, saved by the very same Raxian unit she had been assigned to eliminate. Immediately Lulu was hostile towards being held by the Raxians, but was too weak to move on her own, let alone pick up a weapon. Cared for by the Raxians, Lulu had little choice but to swallow her pride and deal with the situation. When she had recovered enough to be able to walk without help, she was taken to see the unit's CO, where she recieved a shock - the commander was a Viera. Lulu and this commander - a Colonel in the Raxian military named Naisha Grant - talked for many hours, and Lulu came to the startling realization that this Viera was none other than her cousin. Lulu was released soonafter, and returned to Tal's organization, but Lulu's original reasons for joining Tal began to falter in the face of what she had experienced. Clearly, not all humans were as bad as she originally thought. Lulu's leaving the Raxians, however, had repercussions; the unit was attacked by Natural Selection soonafter Lulu had left. Lulu, who had just recovered, was in no condition to fight - and worse, a gunship - likely the same one that had cut down her and Shiara in the first place. Lulu chose to flee, albeit reluctantly. Naisha harbored a fairly serious grudge for some time after this incident, feeling that perhaps Lulu had sold her unit out. The Seed of Dissent Emboldened by Qwynvire, full of questions now that she had seen the other side, and not sure of what to do, Lulu began to seek her own answers. Questioning human prisoners Tal's group had captured revealed that they, too, were not usually the monsters that she had believed. While Lulu kept her cards close to her chest for the moment and continued to serve Tal's group with distinction, she found herself increasingly unable to deal with what this job asked of her. Many of the targets Lulu had been assigned were civilian. Lulu's original position regarding the humans further unraveled when talking to some of her friends; Monique had repeatedly been reprimanded for being "too friendly" with captured humans, whilst Qwynvire herself revealed a more startling fact: that she had been questioning the justness of Tal's actions for years, and that she had asked herself the same questions Lulu had in her younger years. Lulu had had enough. She wanted out, and she decided that she'd take any option available to her to get away, consequences be damned. She couldn't do this anymore. She spent weeks conceiving a plan to escape; she knew that the best way to ensure she would escape would be to defect to one of the CFA countries, and that if she could make off with something she could use as a bargaining chip, she'd have a much better chance of escaping. Deciding that Miranda was the country she wished to head to, based partly on the fact that its Queen wasn't human, Lulu successfully, on her own, infiltrated one of Natural Selection's facilities and made off with a Vorostovan weapon prototype, stolen from the Ultra Crew Institute. Setting things up, Lulu made her offer: if Miranda would let her defect, she'd turn over a valuable item that would otherwise be taken by Tal's forces. The Mirandians agreed, and a team was sent to meet Lulu at a specific rendevous point. Lulu had to come to a final decision before she left - whether or not to try to take any of her friends with her. Lulu eventually decided, rather painfully, that escaping on her own was the best way of acting. If she didn't tell anyone, no one would need to suffer for her safety, and no one could possibly spill her secret. She did, however, assume that at least one person would be following her. And so she escaped under the cloak of night. However, she was right that she would be followed. A former teammate of hers by the name of Nyssa was her pursuer. Unfortunately, she did not expect as large of a squad following her as Nyssa brought. She came under fire, only to be saved, once again, by a Raxian Patrol. Lulu was unable to make it to the original evac point, and her comms equipment was jammed, but the Raxian Military helped get her call out and successfully got the evac team to Lulu - and got Lulu to Miranda. Lulu had, however, in her escape, started something big: Unbeknownst to her, she started something. Among younger members of her squad, questions started to pop up regarding the circumstances of Lulu's departure. On arrival in Miranda, Luvenia faced new issues - not the least of which was abandoning her long-standing attitude of humans being enemies. This was made worse by the fact that initially, the only attire she had to her name on arriving was her old uniform, which proved to draw quite a bit of negative attention, making it difficult for her to find work in anything, including what she did best: sniping. However, she endeavored to find work not involving killing. Eventually, the hate began to wear off, and she started to find work. She did not know what she wanted from life, though, so she tried to experience everything. Sadly, Lulu could not find much that suited her. Surprise! Finally earning the trust of several people, Luvenia finally found acceptance with several people. It took some time, and she would occasionally fall back to her old 'aim at humans whenever possible' habits, but she prevailed, finally making, at the very least, acquaintances with many people, including her former prime target. After Chameleon went missing looking for Verlaine, Lulu offered her aid. The operation, unsurprisingly, forced Lulu to come in contact with people still working in Tal's ranks. However, they did not seem to be expecting her to be there as well. In fact, many of Lulu's old friends seemed to fear the worst, at least initially. Lulu showing up in the field seemed to remedy that, though. Unfortunately for Lulu, during Cham's search, he too came across Tal's men and women. The unfortunate part lies in a particular casualty: Viala. On learning this, Lulu found herself distraught. That was the last member of her family who she expected to be on good terms with her. Another bad surprise came shortly after. On inspecting a break-in at her new home in Miranda, Luvenia found herself fighting one of the few people she could barely bear to fight. Nelyna had come to try to bring Lulu back, one way or another. Also present was Sjathrek herself. Thanks to help from Pit, Lulu's life was once more spared. And, with help from Mitzi and Marcel, Sjathrek was chased off and Nelyna captured, though heavily injured. Lulu was surprised and ashamed in her old teacher, who would attack her psionically on regaining consciousness in the hospital. Luvenia pulled herself together, though, and just in time, too. There was to be a rescue operation to a Natural Selection Facility in northern Miranda. At the time, Lulu did not know it, but Monique, along with a couple of other people from Tal's army were also being held. They were saved (with significant contempt from Chameleon) along with the Mirandian soldiers being held. The important thing, though, was that Lulu had a friend back again. A Business is Born Following the rescue op that recovered Lulu's state of mind, Lulu once again needed direction. This time, though, it was not simply for her, but for her new roommates and family as well. She decided to focus on what they all used to be more than anything: killers and terrorists. So, she geared her business towards getting them ready for civillian life. This way, they could at least do day-to-day non-occupational activities with no hassle. After some practice, anyway. It seemed to prove more than effective. In addition to this good news, more good news came shortly after. Naisha, who used to despise Lulu for her abandonment, finally got over it and became friendly towards Lulu. It was nice for her to have family again. And in the long run, it proved beneficial for Naisha as well, who calmed down noticeably. Though Nelyna refused to change sides, it seemed inconsequential for her to pay any mind, with a new business and new relationships to enjoy. Paramis War The Paramis war emerged suddenly and without discrimination. It affected everyone in one way or another. Though the business continued, Lulu was brought out for another assignment. As a secondary goal, she was to defend the group infiltrating the Anti-Magic generator. Her primary objective, however, was one she hoped for. Her primary objective was to assassinate Nyssa, who was aiding the Paramisians. Nyssa was dispatched, though with some difficulty, but the job was done. Lulu was finally able to find a bit more peace. In addition to this effort, she occasionally was and is called for sniper operations, including one against Natural Selection once again, this time to help defend a warehouse. This proved to be somewhat of a failure, as NS managed to escape with components they needed, even though the weapons all remained on-site.